The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun testing
a new technology designed to help more closely monitor and assist the nation's
homeless population, according to the United Press International.

Under the pilot program, which grew out of a series of policy academies held
in the last two years, homeless people in participating cities will be implanted
with mandatory Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags that social workers
and police can use track their movements.

The RFID technology was developed by HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA) in partnership with five states, including California and New York.

"This is a rare opportunity to use advanced technology to meet society's
dual objectives of better serving our homeless population while making our cities
safer," HRSA Administrator Betty James Duke said.

Mandatory and compulsory under the program, the miniscule RFID tags are no
larger than a matchstick and will be implanted subdermally, meaning under the
skin.

Data from RFID tracking stations mounted on telephone poles will be transmitted
to police and social service workers, who will use custom Windows NT software
to track movements of the homeless in real time.

The plan is justified by using what has become a chronic social problem, people
living in shelters and on the streets who do not seek adequate medical care
and frequently contribute to the rising crime rate in major cities.

Supporters of subdermal RFID tracking say the technology will discourage implanted
homeless men and women from committing crimes, while making it easier for government
workers to provide social services such as delivering food and medicine.

Duke called the RFID tagging pilot program "a high-tech, minimally-intrusive
way for the government to lift our citizens away from the twin perils of poverty
and crime." Participating cities include New York City, San Francisco,
Washington, and Bethlehem, Penn.

Participating states will receive grants of $14 million to $58 million from
the federal Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program,
which was created under the McKinney Act to fund support services for the homeless.

A second phase of the project, scheduled to be completed sometime early this
year, will wirelessly transmit live information on the locations of homeless
people to handheld computers running the Windows CE operating system.

It is worthy of note that the chief sponsor of the McKinney Act was then-Senator
Al Gore of Tennessee. In stumping for its passage, Gore told his Senate colleagues;

"(McKinney) is an essential first step towards establishing a national
agenda for action to eradicate homelessness in America... No one in this body
should believe that the legislation we begin considering today is anything more
than a first step towards reversing the record increase in homelessness."

Exactly HOW tagging homeless people will 'reverse the increase in homelessness'
is something Al Gore is keeping to himself. But it was EXACTLY the right thing
to say to get it passed through the Senate.

RFID's are currently used in commerce to track purchases, inventory and in
some cases consumer behavior by transmitting information via a radio signal
that can be picked up by any person with a receiver tuned to that frequency.

Ford Motor Company implants RFID's in all tires since 2001 to quickly identify
the tires during service. Selected toll roads in Canada use RFID's and Shell
Oil implements them in their EasyPass? system.

Future applications being implemented include United Kingdom's Marks &
Spencer's department store's tagging of RFID's onto their clothing. Wal-Mart
already requires RFID's to be affixed to every item for sale in any of their
stores.

The European Central Bank is working to develop a hair-thin transmitter that
can be imbedded in all Euros by 2005 to prevent, the agencies implementing the
transmitters in the European currency state, laundering, black market transactions
and bribery.

In Tokyo, RFID's are being tested to monitor in-store reading habits at bookstores
and newsstands, supposedly for market research.

And the Western Beef Development Center in Canada implanted 292 calves to track
the animals from growth through slaughter.

But to my knowledge, this is the first time the US government has ordered mandatory
RFID implants into human beings.

Adolf Hitler tattooed those he wanted to track. He began first with the homeless,
the mentally ill, cripples and drug addicts, as part of a gradual conditioning
process.

First, he 'tested the waters' slowly acclimating the population towards acceptance,
by using the least attractive and most defenseless segment of the population
as guinea pigs.

Hitler's first targets were the mentally ill, who began disappearing from the
streets of Germany's major cities. Nobody missed them.

Gradually, he expanded his program to include the handicapped and drug addicts,
discovering that nobody really missed THEM, either.

Eventually, Hitler could take credit for 'cleaning up the streets' through
his policies, and, since the streets were indeed clean, nobody enquired too
rigorously about where the 'problem' went.

It was enough that the 'problem' was gone.

In the case of 'tagging' the American homeless (the majority of whom are mentally
ill) nobody seems to be enquiring too rigorously today, either.

Did YOU know about this story? The UPI piece I referenced at the beginning
of today's report was dated April 3, 2004 -- almost eight months ago.

The story is on the level, but there was very little outcry at the prospect
of involuntarily injecting an electronic ID chip into homeless Americans. After
all, as Al Gore promised, it was the 'first step in eradicating homelessness
in America'.

Homelessness in America is a problem because, first off, Americans are too
compassionate to ignore the plight of the homeless. (I am not being sarcastic,
we really are!) We care, and we want to see something done to 'eradicate' the
problem.

In the second place, anybody who lives in a big city with a major homeless
problem is tired of them. They are everywhere, begging for spare change, breaking
into buildings to stay warm, committing petty crimes to survive, and are a general
nuisance.

A government policy that actually did 'clean up the streets' would be as welcome
to crime-weary voters in Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City and Chicago
as it was to voters in Berlin in 1933.

Coupled together, the two form a 'perfect storm' -- the exact conditions necessary
for conditioning the public to begin to accept the concept as a necessary answer
to a difficult problem.

But there are other difficult problems facing us at every turn. Terrorism,
for one. Implanting RFID chips into legal citizens would make finding illegal
aliens a simple matter.

Separating the terrorists from the illegal aliens, we could implant 'terror-tracking'
RFID chips into THEM, while simultaneously solving the problem of illegal immigration
by deporting the rest back to their home countries.

Then, there is the drug trade. RFID chips can do more than identify and track.
They can carry information, like your bank information and credit card information,
eliminating the need for untraceable cash.

Without cash, there is no way to purchase illegal drugs, and without the ability
to work in the shadows, the drug trade would cease to be, all on its own. The
Colombian narco-traders would have to compete for real jobs with the newly-unemployed
al-Qaeda terrorists.

Drug-related crime would also be similarly eliminated. So would a majority
of other nuisance crimes, like prostitution, for example.

Examined on almost every level, this is a great idea that has been simmering
on the back-burner for more than a decade while its planners seek a way to condition
the public to accept the idea. The public doesn't think it is such a great idea,
but only because they aren't yet convinced of the need for it -- or fully understand
its potential benefits as compared to risk.

All it would take is a carefully planned media blitz and all that could change
within a very short time.

According to Scripture, the antichrist will somehow successfully impose some
kind of mandatory 'mark' identifying its wearer as a member in good standing
of his social order. Those without that mark will be unable to buy or sell,
according to Revelation 13:17.

Any who refuse to accept the mark will be tracked, rounded up, and given a
choice to accept the mark or be executed.

But I am not saying that the RFID chip is Revelation's Mark of the Beast. Let
me be clear on that. The Mark of the Beast is not merely an implantable ATM
card.

It is part of an overall system that includes worshipping the Beast as God.
To this point, there is no Beast, and no system of worship is attached to implanting
RFID tags in homeless people.

But the conditioning process to accept such a system when it comes is already
well underway.

It is equally important to understand that those who favor eliminating cash
and implanting everybody with an implantable chip are NOT evil people consciously
setting the stage for the coming of the antichrist.

They are, for the most part, well-meaning people who want to help solve the
ills of this world, and who would be horrified if they believed they were helping
prepare the path for him.

No doubt most of them have been told by equally well-meaning Christians, but
let's be fair. To an unbeliever, the whole antichrist/Mark of the Beast thing
really DOES sound like a crackpot scenario.

The fact is that, in the natural, the RFID idea is a good one, given all the
challenges that face society in the 21st century. Properly packaged for public
consumption, it wouldn't take a lot of promotion before the majority of the
public began to clamor for its implementation as a replacement for cash and
as a fool-proof form of ID.

It offers a perfect way of guaranteeing both economic security and public safety
in the face of the threat from terrorists, narco-terrorists and domestic criminals.

It seemingly solves most of our most pressing social problems in a single stroke!
All that remains is to convince us that it is an idea whose time has come.

For 2000 years, the prophecy of the Mark of the Beast has baffled Bible scholars.
How could the Beast track the buying and selling down to the individual level
and identify those who weren't part of his system?

For the first time in history, in this generation, the system described by
John is not only possible, it is inevitable. The only missing link is the Deceiver
who puts it all into place.

When the antichrist comes on the scene, he won't arrive wearing a red union
suit and carrying a pitchfork, promising to enslave mankind for Satan. He will
appear to be the most reasonable choice available, one with a 'mouth speaking
great things' and a 'look more stout than his fellows'.

Jesus said, "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and
shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they
shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24)

Even with the Bible's warning of the coming of that 'Wicked', and the description
of the signs of his times as provided by Scripture, even believers would be
deceived, according to Jesus.

But believers in the Church Age are indwelt with the Holy Spirit Who "will
guide you into all truth" and Who " will shew you things to come."
(John 16:13)

"And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his
own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now
restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way." (Together with
the believers indwelt by Him during the Church Age at the Rapture)

"And THEN the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume
with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming."
(2nd Thessalonians 2:6-8 NKJV)